MATCH PREVIEW | AFC Telford United vs Spennymoor Town

update 17:30pm

AFC Telford have this evening confirmed that there will be a precautionary pitch inspection tomorrow morning at 7:30am ahead of the Vanarama National League North fixture.

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10/03/2018 | New Bucks Head | 3:00PM

A well-rested Spennymoor Town travel to AFC Telford tomorrow having not played for two weeks.

The Moors will make the 340 mile round trip to the West Midlands looking to get their promotion push back on track after a series of disruptive postponements and the maintenance of their FA Trophy cup-run.

In theory, a game against bottom-three strugglers Telford should provide the perfect opportunity to do so. But there are no easy games in the National League North, as Spennymoor found out in their last league outing at home to Nuneaton. It’s also a point Moors boss Jason Ainsley has made several times over the course of the last few months – indicating that his side take nobody lightly.

This is the first meeting of the sides since 2014 in the FA Cup and Moors may feel they still have an axe to grind after controversial refereeing decisions took their tie to a replay. Moors were 2-1 up at The Brewery Field and were denied a late penalty claim as well as Bucks scoring a last-ditch equaliser outside of what the home side felt was the correct amount of injury time. Bucks, of course, went on to win the replay 3-0.

STAT CENTRE

Telford are an unknown for Spennymoor, having not played them at all this season due to inclement weather and FA competitions taking priority in the schedule.

The league leaders in the National League North and the National League both have 68 points, while the team at the top of each league’s respective relegation zones also share the same points total of 34.

Spennymoor now have between three and five games in hand on all of the six teams above them.

VIEW FROM THE PRESS BOX

“Having spent the season building up some tremendous momentum, Spennymoor’s disjointed 2018 so far is undoubtedly a negative. But, if we’ve learned anything about this squad it’s that they can perform in any set of circumstances.

“I imagine the lads will just be glad to get back out on the pitch and put the postponements and uncertainty of the last month behind them. They’re a driven and professional bunch and I’d back them against anyone. There’s going to be a lot of fixtures in a short space of time coming up – the perfect way to regain their momentum and steam ahead into the National League North playoffs.”

ONE TO WATCH: ANTHONY DWYER

Anthony Dwyer in action for AFC Telford (image cred: Shropshire Star)

Not always a regular starter for Bucks, Dwyer joined the West Midlands side at the start of the season and made an instant impact, scoring a classy brace on his debut against Leamington.

Despite this berth, he has Telford’s best goals-to-minutes ratio, averaging a goal every 195 minutes with six strikes this campaign. This is two goals short of their top-scorer Marcus Dinanga in just half the minutes played.

The powerful and talented front man will be one to watch either from the start or off the bench for the Moors backline.